Monday, April 22, 2013

I’ve wanted to turn our famous veggie burger recipe into a
meatless meatballs recipe for a long time now, and figured there would be no more
appropriate occasion than Earth Day to reveal the results. After all, as I joke
about in the clip, eating mushrooms is about as close to literally consuming
the earth as you can get.

Despite being completely free of meat, at least the animal
kind, these “meatballs” were fantastic. Thanks to a thorough browning, the
mushrooms provided more than enough savoriness, and the garlic, cheese, and
parsley did the rest. As impressive as I thought the taste was, what really
blew me away was how close the texture was to actual meatballs.

For me, the true test of any alternative meatless recipe is
whether I would eat it again, based on taste and texture alone, and not just
because it’s meatless. In this case, I would…many times over. No, I’m not
giving up real meatballs, but for a delicious and vegetarian-friendly change of
pace, these really were tremendous.

So, whether you're going to make these because you’re a
vegetarian who has been searching for a meatless version, or you’re a hard-core
meat eater who just can’t believe your ears and eyes, I hope you give these a
try soon. Have a happy Earth Day, and as always, enjoy!

Ingredients for 16 small meatballs:

(recipe can easily be doubled!)

1 pound white mushrooms, chopped into very small pieces

2 tbsp olive oil

pinch of salt to sauté mushrooms

1 tbsp butter1/2 cup minced onions

4 minced garlic cloves

1/2 cup instant oatmeal

1/2 cup breadcrumbs

packed 1/4 cup chopped Italian parsley

1 ounce by weight, Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, very finely
grated on a microplane

(Note: it looks like a ton of cheese in the video, but it
was only 1-oz. Because I used a microplane to grate it, it created a huge
looking pile of cheese. It would be about 1/2 cup if you measure, but use
weight for this ingredient!)

Oh gosh--this looks amaze-balls and I want to pin it?!? However it won't let me because it won't show a picture? Would u care to check and c if there is a problem with the pic associated with this recipe?!?! Thanks--

Awesome! I just went to the store on saturday, and I have all these things. Even better tomorrow night is Spaghetti night! (I made that up. It's not really a thing.) I just sent you an Email for another food wish of mine. I feel that your Cajun Ragu was pointed at request. And it really was more of a food demand, or food death threat. Sorry, that's what happens when I'm cravin cajun.

I'm getting more accustomed to this blog format, so I did the decent thing and sent it to your email. I hope makes it your way. This is the most entertaining site on the internet; Fact! I check daily for the new recipes, and humor.

Hi Chef John. I have tried many of your recipes and am pleased to say that I have yet to find one I don't like. Thanks for all your hard work, I hope you never run out of ideas.

On a side note, I happen to be a vegetarian and don't understand all the comments from people about "don't try to fool mother nature" or "creepy gelatinous mouth feel". We all enjoy different foods and if you find some thing you don't I believe Chef has about 800 other options for you to try. So to quote a wise man "Enjoy".

Hi Chef John. I have tried many of your recipes and am pleased to say that I have yet to find one I don't like. Thanks for all your hard work, I hope you never run out of ideas.

On a side note, I happen to be a vegetarian and don't understand all the comments from people about "don't try to fool mother nature" or "creepy gelatinous mouth-feel". We all enjoy different foods and if you find some thing you don't I believe Chef has about 800 other options for you to try. So to quote a wise man "Enjoy".

Chef John I did a little happy dance when I saw the title of this recipe, and now that I've watched it I'm drooling and can't wait to make them!!! I'm used to subbing out meat in recipes, so nice to have one now and then I can make as directed. Kudos to you for the earth day shout out, and keep up the fantastic work!

the mixture is resting in my fridge just now, have still some hours to go - but it sure smells fantastic.i've loved every recipe i've tried yet. this one is perfect for my "vegi-day" once a week (or once every two weeks).btw, i'm a meat-eater and still love tofu. and soy. depends on how you cook it, whether it tastes good or tastes really weird with a disgusting texture. but y'know, asians just KNOW how to cook tofu :P

This looks so awesome and I can't wait to try it. However, in your video you said "a couple of pounds of mushrooms" while your recipe says "one pound". Were you cooking a double batch? Or is the recipe incorrect?

I made a half-batch of these for my dinner tonight and they turned out delicious! Though I think I slipped up and added a touch too much salt somewhere. Salted butter, salty cheese, salt on the shrooms... It added up. I had to use dried parsley as well and, being the impatient/slap-dash kind of cook, I didn't let these sit before baking. They really became super meaty after they simmered in the sauce though! Thanks for these! I missed meatballs so much.

Okay, well I made my first batch today. Unlike the experience of some, mine were not the least bit mealy. In fact, they were much more tender than a "ground up cow". Perhaps it was because I made mine slightly larger than Chef John's (I only got 12, not 16). And when I baked them in the oven I was conservative, knowing that they still would cook in the sauce. At any rate, perfect meatballs. For my sauce I just used fresh tomatoes with basil, garlic and salt. I wished I would have had some wine, but the whole thing was great, and I used whole wheat pasta.

Chef John is my hero because of this recipe and also his cauliflour alfredo and Kung Wow Chicken!

Omg these came out amazing!!! My boyfriend literally bowed down to me. Lol. They taste like the real deal. I didn't have breadcrumbs so I just added a little more of the oats. I also used Italian seasoning instead of the parsley. Also i didn't use any measurements just eyeballed everything. Next time I make these will be for a meatball parm sandwich. Seriously can't wait!

Hi I have these in the fridge ready to roll, but did get confused with the measurements. On the video you use 2 lbs. mushrooms, 2 eggs. The written portion says 1 lb. mushrooms, 2 eggs, but can be doubled ... Maybe the 1 lb. mushrooms was an error and should have read 2?Either way, just wondering so if I made them again I can be sure, I made the oven roasted tomato sauce to go with them, will follow up with the full results! Love your recipes, and your videos!!

Thanks, I get what happened now, I ended up using a little too much dry ingredients and an extra egg, but they were still very meaty in texture and appearance. I will definitely make these again, and use this method for vegetarian burgers as well, they are similar but I think this method makes them meatier!

Update - I made a meatball sub from the leftovers today, delish!!This is the only fake meat recipe I've ever tried and truly liked. I'm going to play around with it and add some beans and things, hope I don't ruin a good thing!

I am not a fan of mushroom at all, but I have watched this video 5 times and for some reason Need to make these.

My friends are all going to our annual weekend cabin getaway (unfortunately I have to work but I can't not make something). If I were to make these for them to take, will they be okay to sit in the sauce for a day?

I froze some of these and they were quite soft after defrosting and heating. I still liked them though and would freeze them again, maybe even crumble them up in tomato sauce to make a meatless meat sauce!

I made these to serve a family of vegetarians and a family of omnivorous. I used your tomato sauce. Every single person (kids included) was truly blown away. The meatballs and the sauce really were amazing. I also made homemade pasta, but that's another story. I'm trying to think of I changed anything in the meatballs... The only thing I did a bit differently was to chop the mushrooms in my food processor to create a more ground texture rather than chopped. I didn't really mean to, but that's how it turned out. It made browning a bit more challenging because the visual isn't a clue to when you've arrived at the c correct browning point. Instead, an aroma emits from the mushrooms that tells you is absorbed perfect. And it was. Thanks again, Chef. I can always count on you!

Chef John your videos are great your humor is even better, I tried this recipe, we eat mostly plant based so I tried this recipe, worked great and my hubby who is a real meat ball freak loved was very satisfied with them. Did not have oat meal on hand so I substituted finely ground flax seed. First you soak it in water makes a nice binder.

I loved the meatless meatballs and so did my vegetarian friend. I made a few changes:Added a tablespoon of cider vinegar and two tablespoons of Worstershire sauce to the mix with the second egg to add complexity to the flavor and a cup of red wine to my tomato sauce for the sam reason. Chilling is an important step. I chilled overnight as you recommend.Nealem